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This deck is not primarily a graveyard deck, but cards like Reanimate are extremely useful in my experience: not only can they recur cards like Craterhoof Behemoth if countered/destroyed, but they can also recur Hapatra herself without the need to pay commander tax.

2 months ago

otters, please link all cards in your question by putting double brackets around the card name.

PlutoniumWedding, please don't use qualifiers in your answer. If you are wrong, someone will let you know. Unfortunately in this case you are right and a wrong answer looks more credible than yours because they didn't use qualifiers.

The Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and Blowfly Infestation interaction does nothing on its own. You must have a third card to generate advantage from the loop. PlutoniumWedding has the explanation right and takes into account Boza's consideration. The important parts are that SBAs are checked and performed before triggers go on the stack and that if multiple things have triggered under one player's control they get to choose the order they go on the stack and therefore resolve.

If you have 2 1/1s and can place a -1/-1 counter you place it on the first. Hapatra triggers and waits to go on the stack. Token dies and infestation triggers and waits to go on the stack. You put infestation on the stack targeting the remaining 1/1 and Hapatra above it. Hapatra resolves giving you a snake. Infestation resolves triggering Hapatra and killing the token. This leaves us at the same place we were after the first 1/1 died (a 1/1 on the board and both triggers to put on the stack).

2 months ago

I'll give it a shot, based on my best interpretation of the rules. Please bear in mind that I'm no judge.

The relevant rule here appears to be this:

704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 116, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that are waiting to be put on the stack are put on the stack, then the check is repeated. Once no more state-based actions have been performed as the result of a check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, the appropriate player gets priority. This process also occurs during the cleanup step (see rule 514), except that if no state-based actions are performed as the result of the step’s first check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, then no player gets priority and the step ends.

The game checks for state-based actions. Snake 1 dies (RIP). We also want to put Hapatra's trigger on the stack, but crucially, we can't do so until we're done with checking for SBAs. Since a state-based action was carried out during the first cycle of checks, we need to do so again.

On the second round of SBA checks, we find that a creature with a -1/-1 counter on it (poor Snake 1) has died, so we make a mental note that we want to put Blowfly Infestation's ability on the stack as well.

No state-based actions were carried out during the last check, so we're done with those. We now have both Hapatra's and Blowfly Infestation's abilities to put on the stack. Since you control both, you get to choose the order in which they do. Since you want to go infinite, you choose to put Hapatra's ability on top so that it resolves first, and choose your sole remaining snake (Snake 2) as the target for Blowfly Infestation's ability.

Hapatra's ability resolves. You now have one fresh snake (Snake 3) and one old snake (Snake 2) with a Blowfly Infestation trigger aimed at it.

To end the loop, either target a creature that won't die (e.g. Hapatra), get rid of one of your enablers or win the game (say with Zulaport Cutthroat).

You can also choose to reverse the resolution order for the triggered abilities. This allows you to end the loop even if Hapatra is wearing Lightning Greaves and your opponents have no creatures by creating a situation where you have no legal targets for Blowfly Infestation. You end up with fewer snakes than you started with, though, so it's a lot of trickery for little payoff in that case. Might be useful to prevent a draw if your opponent responded with Angel's Grace or something.

TL;DR: I think you can go infinite because you don't put abilities on the stack until after you are done resolving all state-based actions, so you can create the next snake before killing all the ones you have.

2 months ago

Phillygreenman007... so I was considering Canker Abomination... in this build it wouldn't net creatures unless I used it as a counter-dump. ETB-with-counters doesn't trigger Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, or Nest of Scarabs. For a similar effect and same cmc, I could use Soulstinger, which I had considered in the past, but sorta forgot about. When Soulstinger was released, I initially thought it would allow you to target multiple creatures, which it doesn't, however it has great synergy with Nest of Scarabs. I dropped Soulstinger in standard because it was too slow, but it might (big might) be worth a try in this build, especially with Necroskitter in play.

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons occurrence in decks from the last year

Modern:

All decks: 0.01%

Commander / EDH:

All decks: 0.01%

Golgari: 0.14%

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